The Labour party have pulled the plug on support for the parliamentary bill that gave the NHS the only chance it had of being fully reinstated back into public ownership.
The NHS Restoration Bill, sponsored by Labour MP Elaine Smith was due to be heard on the 11th July in the house of commons.
But on Wednesday afternoon the Wolverhampton Labour MP posted a statement on her social media page saying the bill had been withdrawn and that she's "now received clarification from the Health Policy team as to where the resistance to the Bill came from".
It's unknown at this time why the Labour party have come up against resistance to the bill since a motion at a Labour conference last September fully supported the bill in its entirety.
Smith continued "In view of this [resistance] I want to reassure supporters of the Bill that the main thrust of its content will be maintained; we are going to try and work through and resolve the issues; meetings are being arranged for next week - and I expect to be invited to take part in them".
A broken commitment?
Although the NHS bill was important in itself, it's the principles behind the bill that drove Labour's NHS health policy culminating in the Labour party committing to the bill at last September's Labour party conference.The composite 8 motion was agreed on September 25, 2017 at the Labour party conference and in part reads:
"Conference recognises that reversing this process demands more than amending the 2012 Health & Social Care Act and calls for our next manifesto to include existing Party policy to restore our fully-funded, comprehensive, universal, publicly-provided and owned NHS without user charges, as per the NHS Bill (2016-17)".The speakers at the conference included shadow chancellor John McDonnell, shadow health secretary Jonathon Ashworth and Professor Allyson Pollock, co-author of the NHS Reinstatement Bill, which has for so long acted as a beacon for campaigners against NHS privatisation.
Support it, yes we do, wait no we don't or ...
Labour have always supported the NHS bill and approved MP's sponsor it many times since its initial reading around 2015. The second reading of the bill however attracted only 15 Labour MPs to its debate in parliament - about 94% of all Labour MPs didn't bother to turn up to support the NHS reinstatement bill.
The Campaign for the NHS Bill is provided by Public Matters, a not for profit company. Along with other groups such as Keep Our NHS Public [KONP] Public matters provided a statement on social media which caused an uproar in the NHS campaigning fraternity.
Fake News?
The public outcry must have reached Labour's HQ as after a short while Labour's Shadow health & social care secretary Jon Ashworth posted a long article saying previous reports about the NHS bill veto were 'fake news'.If in doubt- call it 'Fake News'
The labelling of the article by public matters as fake news appears to have infuriated Public Matters who replied ...
We are extremely concerned and surprised to see Jon Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, label the statement on the withdrawal of the NHS Bill as ‘fake news’ on his Facebook page.
We put the statement out on behalf of the reinstatement bill group. It was approved by Eleanor Smith MP who was going to present the bill. The statement we issued did not attack either Jon Ashworth or Jeremy Corbyn on these issues. It simply expressed concern that the bill should not have been allowed to have its reading. That was specific and not fake. The issue of why that happened has not been addressed.
"We will continue to provide evidence based information on privatisation and political manoeuvres around these issues. Labour could have issued a simple apology and said they got it wrong on this occasion (or given a polite explanation of why they did not feel it was appropriate at this time).
Disappointing that they sought to cast doubt on us and the Bill Group instead.
________________
So have Labour now detracted from their commitment to support, sponsor or promote the NHS reinstatement bill?
Nobody has actually said why the Labour health team pulled the plug on such an important bill and where the 'resistance' to the bill, which is basically Labour's own composite 8 motion, came from?
So have Labour now detracted from their commitment to support, sponsor or promote the NHS reinstatement bill?
Nobody has actually said why the Labour health team pulled the plug on such an important bill and where the 'resistance' to the bill, which is basically Labour's own composite 8 motion, came from?
Have Labour reneged on their commitment to the NHS bill and hence their own policies?
The cross-party bill, whilst not supported by the Tories, was a huge boost for campaigners and Labour supporters alike. Supporting the bill was crucial to gaining cross-party support, as well as support from NHS campaigners who spend hundreds of hours fighting to save the NHS from further privatisation.
Who or what is resisting the bill ?
This could be the straw that broke the back of the NHS. The very party who created the NHS, may have handed it over the wolves in Blue and their corporate buddies... keep campaigning, the NHS is bigger than elusive politics....
__________________
Statement from Eleanor Smith, MP for Wolverhampton South West..
Public Matters group report shock news of NHS bill's withdrawal
Related Links
MPs have let down the public on the NHS bill [from 2016]
Labour Has Committed To Renationalise Our NHS
Labour's full composite motion pledging to support the NHS bill
Labour MPs that support the NHS Bill
Labour party conference (including videos)
Converting the draft NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015 into Law [socialist health]
No comments:
Post a Comment